Messages

I'm not sure I could ever be "done" with comics. That would be like saying "I'm never going to read a book/ watch TV/ see a film/ listen to music" again. But just as my tastes change with regard to what movies, albums, TV shows, books I read at any given time, so do my tastes on comics change.

At the moment I'm actively avoiding TV drama series- am two seasons behind on all the ones I like, and have no inclination to catch up. Prefer filling my TV time with The Chase, the news, Corrie, Emmerdale, and Jeremy Kyle. Similarly I can't be arsed with horror at the moment, and the only movies I'm watching are the Marvel adaptations and light comedies.

That will no doubt change.

But to think that I've read everything in comics and there can't be anything out there that would interest me, is to deny the breadth of the medium. Comics are my favourite thing. I could go without music, film, books and TV, but without comics I'd be very unhappy. It's the single greatest medium yet invented, and when I genuinely think "I've got nothing to read", I walk into Waterstones and take a punt on something that takes my interest. Did this last week with the first volume of 'Black Hammer', which turned out to be sensational. I'm eyeing a bunch of graphic novel adaptations of the lives of old musicians that I found in our local arty-farty bookshop too. And if that fails, then fuck it, I'll just break out my collection of Toxic, and read through them for the umpteenth time.

There's a whole bunch of stuff out there to read. Unlike a lot of you, I love American superhero comics with the same kind of passion we all reserve for the prog. To see them collected in beautiful editions on the shelves of bookshops (plural!) in my piss-poor and dying seaside town, fills me with unquenchable joy. You'll pry my last comic from my cold, dead fingers.

SBT

Top Thrills: Slaine, Absalom
Ticking over: Dredd, SiniDex
Not my thing: Indigo Prime

Glad to see Slaine getting a bit meaty again this week, with the question of his parentage being addressed. Am I the only one genuinely interested in this, and feeling that the answer is going to change things for the foreseeable future. I still don't get on with Simon Davies's art here I'm afraid, which has curtailed my enjoyment a bit, but I also know a lot of folk love it, so I'm happy to see it continue, for now.

Absalom is just completely readable, whether in weekly form or as a collection- which isn't something you can say about all of Tharg's strips over the last ten years.

Dredd isn't doing much for me of late, and SiniDex was a bit of an anticlimactic end to what was a fun story. Indigo Prime, I'm very to concede, has lost me and I'll be skipping it from here on in.
Nice Droid Life too. Shame no letters, and the cover was a bit dark and fugly for me.

A 6/10 prog for me.

SBT

My eldest is now fourteen and has been reading the prog, weekly, since he was eleven. Before that he read all the Case Files up to that point and a huge swathe of my trades. The early stories were his favourites, especially Dredd, Flesh, Rogue Trooper and Future Shocks. The only modern stuff he really liked before getting it weekly was Kingdom.
SBT

The first one I remember is The Target Book of UFOs, which smelled sweetly of sick. In later life I was disappointed, on getting a copy from a junk shop, that the smell wasn't there.
SBT

Sure, but that gets in the way of our "everything is stolen from 2000AD" agenda!

The first annual is episode 9, if that helps! Both episodes seem to working on the feed, maybe you just got further along than you though?

Ah, reckon I accidentally pressed play on the wrong file. Much obliged.
SBT

Okay, a bit weird. I thought I was listening to episode five, and was enjoying them tearing the first annual apart... Then my phone went tits up, and now I can't find it again. Episode five seems to be something else entirely. Anyone point me in the right direction? I have 1-11 downloaded.
SBT

I'd say that, from my point of view, Slaine is the most consistent strip in the whole of the prog. In fact, barring the Secret Commonwealth, which reads okay as a collection, I'd say it hasn't ever put a foot wrong. The current stuff may not be to my taste due to the art- but I still look forward to it more than any other strip bar SiniDex.
Thirteen high quality Slaine hardbacks is great- but I already have all volumes, as well as all the progs. Can I justify them all again? I thought I'd dip in and out of this collection, due to the aforementioned complete set of the progs and hundreds of reprint volumes, but do you know what? I've found myself reading Nemesis again, despite having the phonebooks, which I didn't think would happen. I think I'm in it for the long run.
SBT

Just discovered this. Listened to one of the more recent ones last night, then the very first. Have now downloaded 2-8 to cram in when herself is at work. Absolutely wonderful, the joy is tangible and I sincerely hope they go all the way to current progs.
SBT

I'm afraid the Titan editions, with all their commentary and whatnot, are the perfect ones for me, and they sit happily on the shelf and won't be replaced by new editions any time soon. Colour bits or not.

SBT

Don't have sight of the book to confirm. Prog 305 has a colour star scan of the Blitzsoears being culled by Terminators - could this be it?

That appears to be about right, brilliant. Shame they didn't shove it at the back of the book, in the colour section. Many thanks.
SBT

Also, quick question. The poster/ star scan that serves as the first page of 'The Secret Life of The Blitzspear', where is that from? The book only lists the annual, and from a quick flick, it doesn't appear to be from that.
SBT

Thor: Ragnarok
Utterly astonishing, visually stunning, hilarious and just completely brilliant in just about every way possible. Not only my favourite Marvel movie by miles, but everything I go to the cinema for, in 2hrs 10mins. Just about perfect, and I cannot wait to see it again. And again. It flew by, even with a full bladder.
Stan and Jack have never been better served, and bits were as close to Kirby's amazing pages as it's possible to get.
SBT

I seem to be out of sync with most this week, because the prog didn't put a foot wrong. And I jumped off my seat when Revere turned up. I bloody love Revere, and the original story is among my favouritest 2000AD things ever.  I'm not going to comment on John Smith's disapproval, because I really like him as both a person and a writer, but the return of this character made my week.
Everything else was wonderful- MickMack on Dredd, lovely Slaine, a fantastic SiniDex and another exceptional episode of Absalom. All wrapped up in the best cover this year.
Loved everything about it. Roll on next Wednesday.
SBT

Yeah, I've never gotten on with it. Not sure why, as I generally like pretty much anything Dabnett writes. It may be the art, which to my eye is over- detailed and lacking in black, meaning my eyes get restless. Maybe I've finally come to terms with that, and can see what others see?
SBT

I run hot and cold on the Meg most months, but this one didn't have a bad page. Dredd shone in relation to the prog, with a story I'm very surprised not to have seen before. Minor niggle: the time machine could also travel in space, but somehow managed to hop dimensions? How did that happen?
I've never been able to get through a series of Lawless so far, but this new episode had me from panel one. I may now go back and read all the others. Devlin and Dominion continued to do their thing very well and even Anderson picked up a bit this issue so it felt like more was at stake. Though that last panel was ridiculous/ hilarious.
Excellent features this month, and a floppy that will break some sort of record as the third one in a row I've actually read.
Keep this up, and maybe I won't wander into the newsie every four weeks with a sense there are much better things I could be spending my six quid on.
SBT